


Vice capn

by mercury_wings



Category: Black Clover - Tabata Yuki (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Character Study, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:40:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22633645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercury_wings/pseuds/mercury_wings
Summary: Mimosa does not especially like the vice captain of the Golden Dawn. He is not kind, nor does he seem to be interested in her or any other member of their guild, and he is definitely not the sociable type.Yet she is curious about his strange, really really scary mana. And a partnered mission might just be what she needs to learn more about it, and the man who held it.
Relationships: Langris Vaude & Mimosa Vermillion, Langris Vaude/Mimosa Vermillion
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	Vice capn

**Author's Note:**

> Somehow I am fond of their nonexistent relationship. I feel like they'd go along well, if they tried.  
> This can be read as both romantic or platonic relationship--though I intended it really more as Langris The Loser Gets A Friend In 4k Words

“Watch out.”

  
Mimosa feels her heart skip a single beat as something flings itself up behind her-and she turns around just fast enough to see a wave of dark blue cleanly swipe anything that could have fallen down on her. She straightens herself immediately, a bit flustered from her lack of attention, but there is nothing behind her anymore and nothing left, no trace of what had been there.

  
It’s almost scary, but she links it to the spatial magic having taken it..out.

  
“Sorry. I'll pay more attention from now on.” She calmly says to the man next to her, who had his arm outstretched upwards. She knows he heard her though he did not move, and watches as his eyes narrow in focus before letting his arm lazily fall to his side.

  
“You better, if you want to stay alive.” Langris answers without much concern. Then, “Please move,” so she does, sidestepping to his right. He raises his arm, parallel to the ground, and sighs.

  
Mimosa does not expect the burst of mana that immediately follows that action. His hand clenches, and before she has the time to even hear any magic incantation, a ray of purple pulsates in front of them. It pushes her hair back with a wild strength, and she gasps when Langris sharply moves his arm as if throwing something over his shoulder with that trademark unbothered expression.

  
The wall that was blocking their road disappears along with the retreating wave of mana. Mimosa takes a little time to catch her breath, blinking a few times to push the dust that had followed the two bursts, and exhales deeply.

  
“Next time you do something like that, please warn me ? I thought I'd be taken along with that wall ?” She exclaims, when her senses come back. Langris shrugs.

  
“I have control over my mana. I wouldn't have hurt you.” He simply replies, in the most annoying cold fashion ever. Mimosa felt the most infuriated in his presence- the man did not care about anything, it seemed. In the blink of an eye he would take down armies, buildings, cities, and could, with the exact same tone of voice, order executions as well as cups of tea.

  
“Right.” She regrets accepting to take the mission with him. Their vice captain did not require help at all. He went on missions alone, lived alone, and she suspected he had no family nor friends anywhere. Perfect portrait of the gifted rich child, with his ego and ineffable annoyance. 

  
Yet, in a way, she kind of feels like there is something more important in there. Langris was not ordinary, his magic was perhaps the only proof of something deeper than superficial arrogance. Mimosa could swear that sometimes, when she saw the sudden dark orbs, or simple indigo bursts of matter destroyer, she felt-  
Anger.

  
As they walk further down in the underground caves they had been instructed to instigate, Mimosa thinks about this hate. The undeniably furious mana, as much as it scared her, intrigued her. She knew, thanks to her studies in the Heart Kingdom, that the feelings you got while watching a person perform magic were the feelings of that concerned person.

  
So, when Langris asks her to move away again, she does not. Just to see.

  
“Lady Mimosa, I cannot use my magic if you stand so close.” He remarks, folding his arms. “We won't be able to pass. Please do not act in such ways.”

  
“Why ? Aren't you in perfect control of your mana ? Can't you use it now ? You told me you couldn’t hurt me.” She replies, in quite a frustrating manner she has to admit. She swears she feels something pop inside the man when his smile grows bigger on his face. Struggling.

  
“Alright. Do not blame me if you get hurt, then.”   
Mimosa is almost surprised at the sentence. It holds a certain mockery, in the way he does not even look at her when he declaims it, but also most certain fury. He was absolutely pissed, for sure. To have his expertise criticized like that. Yet, he did not care, just as she predicted it.

  
She was just collateral damage.

  
This time, as Langris stands facing the wall without even raising his arms, she starts to regret. What was he about to do ? The wall looked even mightier than the others they had seen while coming here. She knows space magic cuts through all, but surely he would have to use more mana to take care of this wall ?

  
He inhales. Mana starts to build up around him- more mana than last time.   
And suddenly, it's everywhere.

  
Mimosa doesn't know if he is using it to show off or anything, but the absolute concentration of anger that fills the entire cave in a split second freezes her in place. She swears she hears someone yell, glass shattering, and then-

  


  
The wall disappears.

  


  
It's silent, like all the other uses of his magic. Space just disappears. What was there isn't anymore, and with the feeling of a free fall coming to an end, she is shoved back inside her body. Langris hasn't moved, his grimoire isn't out, his eyes are fixed on a spot far ahead.

  
Mimosa blinks. She was crying.

  
It takes her a moment to realize the tear sliding down her cheeks, but when she does, she's awfully embarrassed. But the fear, all the wild fury, trembling just a few moments ago all around her skin was gone ! All for the sake of personal discovery; but she had learned nothing.

  
She just felt terribly drained.

  
“Lady Mimosa.” She jumps on her feet when Langris speaks up, and quickly wipes off her face with both palms. It was not delicate nor princess-like, but at the moment she did not care.

  
Langris walks up to her, and she realizes that he isn't as tall and annoying as last time. He isn't smiling, in fact there is absolutely no emotion on his face. After the burst, everything was gone along with that wall.

  
“I'm so-sorry I doubted your capacities.” She says, instead of all the questions pestering her.

  
“I’m also sorry.” He replies, much to her surprise. His blue eyes do not falter, nor are they troubled by anything. “I won't use such strong magic around you anymore. It is not kind.”

  
“Since when are you kind ?” Mimosa bites back. She doesn't know why. She doesn't want to feel that anger ever again but is curious of that character who makes no sense.

  
Langris rolls his eyes. “You are quite right, I am not kind. I guess I just-“ he pauses, seems to change his words with a noticeable bitterness, “worry about my squad's well being and efficiency.”

  


  
That's a lie.

  


  
She takes it, though, with a polite nod. Hoping he forgets her tears conveniently, she gestures to continue their road. Langris takes it as a cue to follow, so he does, really without much else. Though, as they walk, Mimosa can feel him itching to say something, ask a question, and she patiently waits for him to make his mind.

  
She wonders what on earth her vice captain had to say.

  
“Say, I remember you have a big brother ?” he asks finally, in the most detached tone he could muster. She can feel the forced calm, and is quite amused by it.

  
“Yes I do. You must have met him to say this. I'm sorry.”

  
And at that, something incredible happens. Langris laughs. Not the pleasant, high-society giggle; he laughs. She hides her surprise with a laugh of her own, feeling a sudden warmth. “Ah-yes-I see why you could say that. The man is...quite original.” He says, amusement bubbling beneath his words.

  
“You can just say his eccentricity is unbearable. He is the worst.” She does not know why she keeps the conversation going, but she has to admit she is always down to make fun of her brother. 

  
“I give up trying to be polite. You are right” Langris concedes. Mimosa makes a triumphant exclamation to encourage him and he sighs, playfully smiling. “He is the most arrogant, full of himself, annoying, disgustingly blinding man I have ever seen. Also, his clothing style is simply aberrant.”

  
“That's what I keep on telling him !” She widens her eyes, shaking her arms vigorously to accompany the statement. Her vice captain nods, crossing his arms over his chest. “Big brothers are the worst.” She concludes.

  
“Tell me about it.” He scoffs. Mimosa is taken aback by this divulgation of personal information, blinking. Langris never, ever spoke in such a way. 

  
“You have a big brother ?” she asks, curious. She hopes he won't shut down again, and is relieved when he doesn't.

  
“Had would be more appropriate.” He admits almost inaudibly.

  
“Oh!” was that the source of the furious mana ? “I’m so sorry !”

  
“Please don't be. He's not dead, in fact, you must have met him too. For that I also have to apologize to you.”

  
She frowns, puzzled. “I do not recall meeting any Vaude other than you ?” she questions, searching his face for any answer. Langris sighs.

  
“Yes, he is not one.” Her eyes widen. “You could say, and pardon me for the vocabulary, he was a bastard son.”

  
Mimosa had known the Vaude family as a corrupted one, from what her parents had told her. Its reputation was founded solely on magical purity and power- their spacial mana was new, strange, scary. This revelation wasn't as surprising as she hoped it would be. “I see. And I suppose-“

  
“He left the house when we were children; the coward.” Langris cuts her with a sudden spit, that she easily recognizes as deep resentment. This was more, this was worse than her relationship with Kirsch. “He could not take so much responsibility upon himself, so he did what he does best- run and let someone else take care of his mess.”

  
A very uneasy silence settles between the two at the end of his words. Mimosa begins to understand, a little, why he would have so much resentment towards his older sibling. It reminds her of things about Kirsch, too.

  
“A young child always looks up to their elder.” She softly remarks. “And therefore it is of order that the elder becomes a good role model. The younger child shouldn't have to patch up the elder's lacks; it should in fact be the opposite.” She pauses. Langris had stopped walking, light blue eyes a little too wide as he looked at the floor without blinking. So, measuring her voice to keep his berserker mana calm, she asks : “Don’t you think so ?”

  
He raises his head; blinks; looking terrifyingly surprised at such kindness in her tone. Encouragingly, she nods, so he stutters at first but immediately frowns to cover up his embarrassment. “I do.”

  
And then, Langris shuts himself up. Mimosa hoped to make a little more social advancements, to be entirely honest, because she was still very curious on who in tarnation his brother could be- and if there was more than resentment for that man that formed the furious mana. It had to; she rarely felt so shocked in front of negatively charged mana. With a single attack, he had made her feel a thousand years of pure hatred. 

  
She starts to worry a little. She had met that brother who made him feel so bad ? What kind of monster was he, unsurprisingly related to the Vaude family, and what had he done else than giving all his responsibilities to Langris; who; understandingly so, wasn’t so happy about the entire situation.

  
Feeling like she was making progress in deciphering the vice captain, she questions further. “You said I had met your brother. Yet I cannot seem to recall meeting anyone similar to you ? I mean- physical wise-"

  
He seems to hesitate before answering. “Well, you and Kirsh aren't very similar either.” He points out, almost evasively, and when she does not pick up on it he sighs. “I think the only trait we share...would be our magic type. Yes, it is, but we use it in terribly different ways. Probably because he is way less talented than I am.”

  
Then again, it was hard not being worse than Langris. Mimosa herself knew her mana, as royal and strong as it was, could not compare with...whatever amount was kept under pressure in the man's small body. So she thinks. Spatial magic of some kind ? Ordinary mana ? Personality that would match how Langris described him ?

  


  
“Lady Mimosa.” She jumps in surprise at the call, which felt less a call and more a simple “ok” or such. Still, she nods at him, to which he gestures forward, and she sees yet another wall standing.

  
“Oh.” She mumbles. Understanding why she had been addressed to, she steps backwards to let him work, and he thanks her before taking his usual stance again.

  
The conversation they had seemed to have dissolved in thin air.

  
But then, Langris does not raise his hand. There is no mana emanation, nothing to indicate any preparation. Mimosa questioningly gets closer “Is something the matter ?”

  
“The wall.” He points, looking a little distraught. “Can you not feel it ?”

  
Now a little ashamed, the royal steps a little closer again to the wall, looks at it, searches for something; whatever strange thing he might be talking about; but feels nothing.

  
Really, nothing at all.

  
“It is a...compact wall.” Mimosa remarks, a bit dully, tapping the rock. “Looks...mighty.” Langris looks unaffected, and very much unimpressed (normally) at her words.

  
He sighs. “Yes.” Which makes Mimosa a tiny bit proud about the remark. “There is a lot of...full space. I believe the cave ends here.”

  
Full space. She wonders if it made him feel uneasy, so much full space. Or was it emptiness created by his own mana that made him helpless ? Knocking on the wall, the end of the cave, she listens to the echoless and weak vibration. It was...very strong rock.

  
“Let's go back ?” she asks, words feeling a little hollow compared to other things they had discussed beforehand. But it was part of being acquaintances—the simple sentences sometimes. And Langris does not seem bothered by the change of tone, change of proximity they had between each other.

  
He nods, so Mimosa follows back, strutting a little quickly to catch up, and when she does, falls into a slower pace. They're next to each other, exact same position, and exact same curiosity in her head. She waits a bit until the silence feels long enough, and immediately picks up the conversation again.

  
“So who is this brother I've met before ?” she asks, as lightly as possible. But Langris notices the impatience eating her out, rolls his eyes, faint smile tugging on his lips.

  
“Finral Roulacase.”

  


  


“Finral-senpai is your brother ?!” she exclaims, once the name sinks in far enough in her brain and she realizes who they were talking about. The sweet guy, easily flustered, a little bit of a womanizer, was that oh so terrible coward Langris mentioned ? Mimosa thinks. Finral, a coward ?

  
She wants to convince herself that the man was brave, but she had to face the facts. And she doesn't think this was a lie. They did share spatial magic...

  
“I wonder why I told you this information.” The redhead suddenly muses, apparently more to himself than her. Even though she looks at him, he keeps on facing forward, looking a bit distraught. “I don’t speak of myself like that.”

  
The flower mage stares ahead too, taking her eyes off him. She does not feel like it is her place to answer, yet a certain impulse makes her speak anyways. “Sometimes, we just have to talk ?”

  
She does not see it, but she hears the surprise in his voice. “We do ?”

  
“I believe so.”

  
“Even when it's pointless ?”

  
“Was it pointless to reveal this information about yourself ?”

  
Now Mimosa looks back at the man as he makes a grimace. “Could prove itself to be dangerous. I know not what you will do with this.”

  
It feels uneasy, she realizes. Most people she spoke to, like Klaus-senpai or Asta-san often spoke of little things to fill silence not politely but by simple wish of speaking. Silence, she think, wasn't a thing she was accustomed to when in company of people—and she thinks Langris shares the thought. But conversation meant many things, ranging from looking at the weather and giving orders (which was what her vice captain did most) to divulgation of personal information and care for one's self more than exterior matters.

  
Then, she thinks about his last statement. Dangerous ? To speak of a bastard brother who apparently was no more to Langris' eyes ? Mimosa believed many things about Finral, but they were changing all of a sudden.

  
“I guess I’ve always taken Finral-senpai as a little noble-“ she starts, unsure of where she was going with this, “but never would I have guessed he was a Vaude to begin with.”

  
Langris hesitates, but less than for the last thoughts he had shared. “To be entirely honest, I don't think he's ever really been a Vaude to begin with. We are...”  
His words lose themselves somewhere in that big space in his grimoire, which opens up all of a sudden with a loud snap. Mimosa blinks, takes a step back, feels her foot hit something, and falls backwards.  
Half a moment of floating confusion takes place before Langris catches her and spins on his feet. At the sharp gesture—she is scared—his mana is back full force—worse than last times. She dares look at what she had slipped on—

  
A very, very tiny bone.

  


  
“Illusion.” The man holding her gasps, and Mimosa is almost lost in the genuinely fearful eyes darting to the ground and then up, but something whistles behind them and she forces herself to stand up again.

  
She felt sick to the bone, with all this magic weighing everything down.

  
“Mimosa-san—” Langris calls-or maybe he just says-but she's underwater—”Do you have your broom on you ? Mimosa-san !"

  
She feels mana swipe her right side, taking a string of hair along its course. Blinks, tries to suppress the envy to throw up, “Yes. Yes I have it.”

  
Her body feels very heavy. She wonders if it's an effect of the cave—the illusion Langris had mentioned—but she can feel only one mana around them, and it's his. He grabs on to her shoulder, quickly pats her back down to find the broom and flings it upwards with unmasked haste. The action, making her cape flutter up and forcing all the magic up to the piece of wood allows her to see things a little better for but a moment.

  


  
There isn't only one bone on the floor.  
They're everywhere.

  
Masked by an illusion—which had suddenly cracked for some reason. She can see the traps all around the cave now, all the weirdly shaped arrows and all the weirdly made spike pits or something—and she wants to comment on them but suddenly she is flung up.

  
Up and up again.  
She feels like she's going to throw up.

  
And then she remembers they're in an underground cave.

  
With a panicked jerk she screams, the rock ceiling dangerously close, but at the moment of impact it disappears. Mimosa remembers the mana – which was weird considering it had been the first thing she had noticed at the start – and it was making way for them through the tunnel while supporting both of them on the broom which was going super fast. She's scared; they're going so fast and they were so deep – would Langris' mana run out ? For the first time ?

  
But it doesn't.

  
With a loud gush of wind and a ray of sunshine they emerge. The broom goes a little higher than the ground, then stops, and as her stomach flips along her in the air, Mimosa blinks aggressively against the sudden light. She falls on the ground quite graciously, or not really, because she can feel herself squinting and she is a little awkward on her feet after all the emotion.

  
Langris, however, did not look as fresh. He clings to the broom as it falls and almost trips, catching himself with the wooden stick with an almost wavering strength. Mimosa steps towards him, although still nervous about the mana which had, once again, altogether disappeared, and tries to help him stand.   
He refuses the help.

  


  
Then he accepts it when the broom slips off his grasp and he is obligated to give in.

  
They stay silent, for a moment, letting the panic settle back out of their bodies. From her vice-captain's erratic breathing, she can guess he overdid himself in that place – and also that maybe it wasn't that effortless for him to break all those walls. He seems to struggle to speak, but after his breath falls back into a semi-decent rhythm, he speaks.

  
“I think we should talk about the illusion in our report.” As professional as ever. “And we should ask for further investigations with members capable of dissipating these illusions and who have defensive abilities against those traps.”

  
She answers with a simple non verbal hum. Doesn't know what else to say upon the matter. Except maybe ;

  
“Thank you.”

  
“Excuse me ?” Langris sounds genuinely confused, breathing out the answer too quickly and then having to cough and gasp for air. She waits patiently until he's done.

  
“Thank you for helping me back there, and for all you have said. I initially thought you were just an all too severe, very angry vice captain but you are kind, deep inside. You didn't leave me to die, and reacted fast to save me. Thank you.”

  
There's a pause. Being behind him, she cannot see his face, but she can feel the unfamiliar warmness accompanying nice words enveloping him. She guesses that the polar opposite of Finral Roulacase wouldn’t be accustomed to being thanked – which wasn't a good thing in itself.

  
Mimosa decides right there and then that she would help this man. He was be terribly dangerous, and his mind was as corrupted as his magic, yet she could not, would not let him wither away in silence.

  


  
“You’re welcome.” Langris mutters, breaking her musings. As she is supporting him she does not see his face, but feels his back contract against her touch before attempting to detach itself for her. She allows it, a little unsure, and sighs in amusement when he gives up and leans back against her. “I’m sorry; you are going to have to carry me for a while during the way back.”

  
She giggles. “I never thought the day would come where I'd have to carry the almighty Langris Vaude back to the Golden Dawn !”

  
“Don’t push it.” He replies immediately, and from the voice she knows he is struggling to suppress a smile. “I just need a few minutes to get back on my feet.”  
Mimosa knows it is a blatant lie—or maybe it was not, considering how horrifyingly powerful his mana was. “Then let us wait here. I will help recharge your magic to allow us to depart quicker, if you do not mind.”

  
“I don’t.” He answers honestly, and for once, concedingly. Quite a bit happy with herself, though she was still scared, she moves aside to let him rest on the ground and takes out her grimoire to perform some healing magic. As flowers start covering the grass around them, and the hole that had allowed them to escape closes up (she will tell Langris about it later, probably), she realizes how simply beautiful the land surrounding them is. Perhaps she had missed it, after so long in the underground cave.

  
And Langris, not asleep but laying unmoving with his eyes closed, right in the middle of all these rainbow coloured flowers, did not look as angry as usual. No sarcastic remark, no haughty smile, no hateful spit; he was just resting, his terrible mana gone, in perfect still pleasance. Strangely, it is the first time Mimosa considers him as a human like her and the rest of the Golden Dawn instead of the kind of surreal monster he so often represented in her mind.

  
She knows this quiet will be gone as soon as they depart, and the uneasy feeling back with the loud clamour of his space magic. So she, just like him, rests with her hands joined and her gentle mana enveloping both of them; and cherishes the split second of stop before she has to go back to the Golden Dawn and the incessant missions and buzzing drama.

  


  


  


  


**Author's Note:**

> I'm a big fan of character studies mostly because it is the only thing I am capable of writing these days


End file.
